ABSTRACT

Originally published in 1987, Out of the Cage brings vividly to life the experiences of working women from all social groups in the two World Wars.

Telling a fascinating story, the authors emphasise what the women themselves have had to say, in diaries, memoirs, letters and recorded interviews about the call up, their personal reactions to war, their feelings about pay and the company at work, the effects of war on their health, their relations with men and their home lives; they speak too about how demobilisation affected them, and how they spent the years between two World Wars.

chapter 1|7 pages

Introduction

part One|125 pages

The First World War

chapter 2|19 pages

Women before 1914

chapter 3|26 pages

Dilution: Women in Men's Jobs

chapter 4|22 pages

War Work

chapter 5|18 pages

Health and Welfare

chapter 6|17 pages

Domestic Life

chapter 7|18 pages

Demobilisation 1918–20

part Two|154 pages

The Second World War

chapter 8|17 pages

Women Between the Wars

chapter 9|14 pages

Call Up

chapter 10|15 pages

Dilution Again

chapter 11|20 pages

On the Job

chapter 12|14 pages

Love, Sex and Marriage

chapter 13|16 pages

Health and Welfare

chapter 14|21 pages

Double Burden

chapter 15|24 pages

Demobilisation 1945–50

chapter 16|7 pages

Conclusion